The conquest of other worlds is one of the most cherished dreams of mankind. The new invention will help bring us closer to our cosmic goal faster. Now NASA is cooperating with a company that is developing power engines capable of delivering people to Mars in a relatively short time – two months instead of nine.
A potentially revolutionary propulsion system is being developed by Howe Industries, an Arizona-based company. To achieve high speeds in a shorter period of time, an pulsed plasma rocket will use nuclear fission – the release of energy from atoms splitting apart – to create plasma packets for thrust.
In fact, the engine creates a controlled plasma jet that will help accelerate the rocket in space to significantly faster speeds than those currently produced by traditional chemical engines. Using a plasma propulsion system, the spacecraft can potentially generate up to 10 tons of thrust with a specific impulse of 5,000 seconds, which ensures extremely high fuel efficiency.
It sounds pretty revolutionary. However, this is not an entirely new concept. NASA has already developed a similar concept, known as PuFF, in 2018. But the pulsed plasma rocket, according to NASA, has a simpler design and is quite affordable.
The Space Agency claims that the high efficiency of the power plant can make it possible to carry out a manned mission to Mars within two months. Today, with the help of conventional propulsion systems, the journey to Mars takes nine months. The less time people can spend on space travel, the better: shorter periods of exposure to cosmic radiation and microgravity can help mitigate their effects on the human body. The pulsed plasma rocket will also be capable of carrying much heavier spacecraft, which can then be equipped with protection from galactic cosmic radiation for the crew on board.
The new propulsion system has the potential to revolutionize manned spaceflight, helping people get to Mars much faster.
Earlier we talked about how an astrophysicist criticized Elon Musk’s idea to colonize Mars.
According to gizmodo.com
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